Under New Management
by Elle Rosewood
Summary: A sabotaged sortie leads to the death of their admiral along with the fleet's flagship. Now, those who were left behind must cope with someone new at the helm of the anchorage. For better or for worse...


Chapter 1: Choukai

"Choukai, I have top secret orders from the Commander."

In a cramped room filled to the brim with radio equipment, the aforementioned fleetgirl sat on the floor. Her hands holding a pair of clunky headphones pressed over her ears. She had been tuning in to something for days on end as was noticeable from the bags underneath her eyes and the sticky mess that was previously a bundle of silk-smooth, long, black hair. The same could be said of the room she was in; unorganized, ill-maintained, and with her uniform strewn all over the place like rags.

Ooyodo, the fleet's communications officer, peered in from a steel, hatch-like door from underneath the floor to hand over a small slip of paper. Normally, this room would be locked from the inside, but there, on the edge of the table beside Choukai was a small contraption surrounded by some screwdrivers; the room's lock was broken.

Interrupted, Choukai glimpsed at the piece of paper being delivered to her and replied with disdain. "That looks like something a simpleton could've written." She propped up her glasses like a snob intellectual. Ooyodo took offense and replied with her voice carrying the sentiment, "I was the one who wrote this."

Sent into panic for it was not her intention to insult the other bespectacled girl. She attempted to apologize bowing slightly, but dropped her headset on her right foot. The clanging sound of metal echoed throughout that small room baking from the sun's heat. No physical injury was sustained, but she came to despise that clanging sound as it reminds her of painful memories. I didn't mean to offend. Can you come up here and brief me on the plans instead? I..."

Ooyodo, who had already climbed up into the room, approached her and firmly placed her index finger over Choukai's lips. She closed her eyes to sympathize with the girl who was halfway into tears. "I understand."

"Thank you..." She reached out for the headset lying on the floor as Ooyodo made sure that the hatch-like door was closed shut before starting their discussion.

"The Commander has accepted a combat exercise proposal from the neighboring naval district's admiral. You are to serve as the exercise fleet's flagship alongside I-8, I-19, I-58, I-168, and I-401. Kindly be informed that the line-up has been announced to the other party beforehand."

A cup can only hold so much; once a heavier fluid was poured into it, the lighter one would overflow and be replaced. Depression be damned, this outrage was titanic in magnitude that she nearly threw the headset she had just picked up "The other fleet would obviously be composed of five destroyers and a battleship."

She bit her thumb and slumped down to enter a state of intense concentration. No matter how deep a depression she was in, a plan as idiotic as this was too much to ignore. Ooyodo knelt behind her and rested her hands on Choukai's shoulders. If she's able to concoct plans once more, a little joke wouldn't hurt. "I have to apologize! I forgot to mention one other thing."

"Not now! I'm formulating a plan for success." She replied with such haste that Shimakaze would be ashamed. But that didn't stop Ooyodo from delivering the coup de grace. Leaning over, she whispered into Choukai's ears, "This is a test."

Those words ran through her mind like a type 1 armor piercing shell through an I-Class abyssal destroyer. There was no point to it, but alas! Nothing is better than overkill.

Stopped dead in her planning tracks, she let out an enraged "Ugh". That revelation truly was stunning, enough to give Ooyodo all the time to fiddle around with the stuff inside; the broken lock on the table as her target.

Slamming her fists into the desk, Choukai turned to Ooyodo to empty her mind, "The nerve! He did such crappy preparations and now he says he's testing me!?"

However, Ooyodo was already halfway out of the room. Surprising to know that she can move stealthily like a certain night-battle idiot.

"What?" Choukai uttered in confusion, her crimson eyes locked into a starting contest with Ooyodo's brilliant blue. The smile that Ooyodo gave her can best be described as Impish. Choukai could feel that there was some sort of ulterior motive to her actions, but was unable to pierce through that thick mask. Ooyodo slowly tilts her head to the side and with a really flirtatious tone told Choukai to reconsider, "Should you be fantasizing about me right now?"

One could correctly say that Ooyodo might've named that move as a "Confusion Ray". To note; it was super effective that it sent Choukai into defensive mode. "How rude, I've never once thought of..."

Waving her index finger side to side, Ooyodo butted in with voice raised, "But you are right now!"

"Wha!? What!? Fantasizing!? W..." She stopped and reconsidered something. It was halfway through that exchange when the perfect plan flashed through her mind. As she had thrown her head straight up, she began to laugh maniacally "I'll show him... I'll really show him! Aaaaggghhh!"

Her small moment ended abruptly when Ooyodo popped back in to the room. Taken aback, she yelped, "Do... Don't scare me like that!" With Ooyodo's hand in the shape of a gun, she aimed at a beret hanging by the right wall, "You need to repay him for that blueprint."

A light green beret with a red ribbon on the side was hung there. Choukai momentarily took a glimpse at it and sighed, "That blueprint was forced onto me. I feel violated."

Ooyodo raised her index finger and lectured her in a matter of fact voice, "You are still held accountable for that. Blueprints don't grow from trees."

Choukai's brows rose from that statement. She snagged the beret from the wall and wore it begrudgingly,"You're awfully pushy about this matter. Are you somehow involved in all of this?"

Ooyodo's grin was nearly from ear to ear as she pulled out a handheld mirror and handed it to Choukai. The latter of which took it without hesitation to fix her hair "Ah, thank you." The moment she averted her attention, Ooyodo slid back down, then slammed the hatch-like door shut with an audible click.

"Hey! Ooyodo! Don't dodge the question!" She tried to collect all the pieces of her uniform and hurriedly wore them. In no time, she was up and running about. Consider the fact that there was a distinct lack of undergarments scattered across the room. Putting on a short vest and a miniskirt should not stall her long enough to attempt to pry the hatch open, but it didn't budge one bit. "What did you do!? Hey!"

As her ears picked up a barely audible ticking, she stopped banging on the hatch-like door. Alarmed, she searched for the lock she had at the edge of her table and it was nowhere in sight. With a shrug she resigned herself to her fate, "She'd have to call Akashi sooner or later since that time-lock is broken. Better work on the plan instead."


End file.
